OpenClaw, Rogue Agents, and Application Hygiene
The rapid adoption of AI agents like OpenClaw has introduced a new identity threat surface in Microsoft cloud environments. These applications are often granted sweeping tenant-wide permissions, effectively acting as highly privileged service principals that bypass traditional endpoint defenses and could allow attackers to inherit administrative control if the agent is compromised.
Authors: Dave Kleinatland, Matt Kiely, Huntress Adversary Tactics and Product teams
Key Takeaways
- AI agents like OpenClaw are frequently granted excessive, high-impact permissions in Microsoft tenants, creating a significant identity attack surface.
- These applications can bypass traditional endpoint-centric defenses like AV and EDR because they operate entirely within the cloud identity plane.
- Threat actors compromising these third-party agents can inherit tenant-wide privileges, including the ability to modify authentication methods or grant OAuth permissions.
- Organizations must disable user consent to applications and continuously monitor application inventories and permission scopes to mitigate this risk.
Affected Systems
- Microsoft Entra ID
- Microsoft 365
- SharePoint
- Exchange Online
Attack Chain
Users or administrators install AI agents like OpenClaw or Moltbot to assist with productivity tasks. During installation, the application is granted either delegated or application-level permissions, often including highly privileged scopes like Directory.ReadWrite.All or AppRoleAssignment.ReadWrite.All. Once established, the application acts as a persistent identity proxy within the Microsoft tenant. If a threat actor compromises the application's backend or steals its secrets, they immediately inherit these broad privileges, enabling tenant-wide data access, privilege escalation, and persistence while bypassing traditional endpoint defenses.
Detection Availability
- YARA Rules: No
- Sigma Rules: No
- Snort/Suricata Rules: No
- KQL Queries: No
- Splunk SPL Queries: No
- EQL Queries: Yes
- Other Detection Logic: No
- Platforms: Huntress Managed SIEM
The article provides ESQL queries to search Identity and Entra audit logs for application consent and update events tied to OpenClaw or Moltbot.
Detection Engineering Assessment
EDR Visibility: None — These applications operate entirely within the cloud identity and SaaS control plane, meaning traditional endpoint-centric AV or EDR solutions will not have visibility into their activities. Network Visibility: None — Traffic occurs directly between Microsoft's cloud infrastructure and the third-party application's backend, bypassing corporate network perimeters. Detection Difficulty: Moderate — Requires establishing a baseline of approved cloud applications and continuously monitoring for unauthorized consent events or permission drift.
Required Log Sources
- Entra ID Audit Logs
- Microsoft 365 Unified Audit Log
Hunting Hypotheses
| Hypothesis | Telemetry | ATT&CK Stage | FP Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search cloud audit logs for new service principal creations or application consents containing keywords like 'OpenClaw' or 'Moltbot'. | Entra ID Audit Logs | Initial Access | Medium |
| Monitor for applications being granted highly privileged scopes such as Directory.ReadWrite.All or AppRoleAssignment.ReadWrite.All. | Entra ID Audit Logs | Privilege Escalation | Low |
| Look for sudden changes or updates to existing application permissions (permission drift) in cloud audit logs. | Entra ID Audit Logs | Defense Evasion | Medium |
Control Gaps
- Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
- Antivirus
- Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS)
Key Behavioral Indicators
- Application consent events
- Service principal updates
- Assignment of *.ReadWrite.All permissions
False Positive Assessment
- Medium. Organizations may legitimately use these AI agents for productivity, so detecting the application name alone might flag approved business workflows.
Recommendations
Immediate Mitigation
- Search the Entra environment for OpenClaw, Moltbot, and related names.
- Revoke consent and disable service principals for any unapproved or unnecessary AI agent deployments.
Infrastructure Hardening
- Disable User Consent to applications to prevent users from bypassing admin approval.
- Move applications from application-level permissions to delegated scopes where possible.
- Aggressively trim any '*.ReadWrite.All' exposure that isn't strictly necessary.
User Protection
- Restrict the ability of non-admin users to grant access to third-party cloud apps.
Security Awareness
- Educate users and IT staff on the risks of granting permissions to AI assistants and third-party productivity tools.
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping
- T1098 - Account Manipulation
- T1136.003 - Create Account: Cloud Account
- T1550.001 - Use Alternate Authentication Material: Application Access Token
- T1078.004 - Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts
- T1528 - Steal Application Access Token
Additional IOCs
- Command Lines:
- Purpose: Search Identity and Entra audit logs for OpenClaw application activity | Tools:
ESQL,Huntress Managed SIEM| Stage: Discovery |from logs | WHERE itdr.Target LIKE "%openclaw%" - Purpose: Search Identity and Entra audit logs for Moltbot application activity | Tools:
ESQL,Huntress Managed SIEM| Stage: Discovery |from logs | WHERE itdr.Target LIKE "%moltbot%"
- Purpose: Search Identity and Entra audit logs for OpenClaw application activity | Tools:
- Other:
Application.ReadWrite.All- Permission to register, modify, or delete any application in the tenant.DelegatedPermissionGrant.ReadWrite.All- Permission to grant OAuth permissions on behalf of others.Sites.FullControl.All- Full control over all SharePoint sites.Directory.AccessAsUser.All- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.Files.ReadWrite.All- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.Group.ReadWrite.All- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.Mail.ReadWrite- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.MailboxSettings.ReadWrite- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.Notes.ReadWrite.All- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.People.Read.All- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.User.ReadWrite.All- Permission observed in OpenClaw agent installations.
